Image/Photo Credit: Compact Discs by Petr Kratochvil
The latest DEG report on the state of home entertainment paints a highly contrasting picture that highlights the growing gulf between digital and physical.
Total domestic spending for the first quarter rose 2% compared to the same period last year, but behind this figure is a complex, and at times conflicting set of results for everything from streaming to disc sales.
Subscription streaming revenue continues to go from strength to strength, with the $1.8 billion figure representing a massive 26% rise from the same quarter only just a year ago.
Electronic sellthrough revenue also rose significantly, up 13% to $572 million, with sales of theatrical titles up 30%. Many of the best selling titleswere animated titles, including Disney's Moana, 20th Fox's Trolls and Universal's Sing.
On the down side, physical media sales and rentals continued their slide. Sales of DVD and Blu-ray discs, while still at a significant $1.2 billion, was down 14.3% from the same time last year. Physical media rentals were similarly down, with kiosks suffering the most with a 17% decline. Legacy video store rental revenue continued their slide into irrelevancy, down 22% to $107 million.
Also included in the latest report was a closer look at the emergence of 4K. 2.6 million 4K TVs were sold in the quarter, up 54% from a year ago. 4 million households now have an Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
With 139 Ultra HD Blu-ray titles already being released, this translated to 900,000 disc sales in the quarter.
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